Six weeks into a nationwide work-from-home experiment with no end in sight, whatever boundaries remained between work and life have almost entirely disappeared.
With many living a few steps from their offices, America’s always-on work culture has reached new heights, Bloomberg reports. The 9-to-5 workday, or any semblance of it, seems like a relic of a bygone era. Long gone are the regretful formalities for calling or emailing at inappropriate times. Burnt-out employees feel like they have even less free time than when they wasted hours commuting.
In the U.S., homebound employees are logging an average of three hours more per day on the job than before city and statewide lockdowns, according to data from NordVPN, which tracks when users connect and disconnect from its service.
The contours of the workday have changed, too. Without commutes, wake-up times have shifted later, NordVPN found, but peak email time has crept up an hour to 9 a.m., according to data from email client Superhuman. Employees are also logging back in late at night. Surfshark, another VPN provider, has seen spikes in usage from midnight to 3 a.m. that were not present before the COVID-19 outbreak.
With nothing much to do and nowhere to go, people feel like they have no legitimate excuse for being unavailable and despite stereotypes that telecommuting breeds slacking, early data suggest productivity is up.
However, recognizing productivity gains from working at home may be short-lived if workers burn out, so some employers are attempting to help people cope. Goldman Sachs Group gave staff an extra 10 days of family leave; Microsoft Corp. is offering its workers an additional 12 weeks parental leave. At Starbucks Corp., employees now get 20 free therapy sessions. Salesforce.com Inc. is running virtual meditation and workouts.
But there’s only so much companies can do with schools, day cares and offices still closed for what seems like the indefinite future. Read the full story.
